Guidance

Daily local bus passenger and trip statistics methodology note

Updated 19 June 2025

Introduction

These statistics have been published by the Department for Transport (DfT). This document provides background information about the data sources and the methodology behind the statistics.

Quality

These statistics are labelled ‘official statistics in development’. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are temporarily undergoing a development and are being tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We expect this release series to remain labelled as official statistics in development for the foreseeable future.

We welcome feedback from users of these statistics. This can be provided by emailing us at bus.statistics@dft.gov.uk.

Data Source

The daily local bus passenger and trip statistics are derived from data compiled and provided by Ticketer. Ticketer develops and supplies electronic ticket machines (ETMs) to bus operators, and the data shared with the Department is aggregated from these devices.

Coverage

These statistics refer to the activities of holders of Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operators’ licences. An operator wishing to run bus or coach services is normally required to possess a PSV licence. However, certain vehicles and types of service are exempt from licensing and are excluded from the figures, such as community buses and local services operated by taxis. This table relates to local bus services.

A local bus service is a stopping service available to the general public, where the route is registered with the Traffic Commissioner, which is eligible for Bus Service Operators Grant.

Currently, data from around 220 local bus operators (excluding Transport for London (TfL) and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) data) are included in the Ticketer data, representing around 50% of the overall bus market. However, coverage varies across the country: some local transport authorities have coverage above 50%, while others have less coverage. A data confidence index has been included alongside the data as a means of assessing the level of confidence that can be attached when interpreting any figures and trends. The data includes passenger journeys and vehicle trips.

The daily data is for England outside London.

Relevance

These statistics provide key information on trends in the bus sector. Within the Department for Transport they are used for:

• ministerial briefing and to answer public enquiries
• as background to policy development
• monitoring trends in the bus sector
• by analysts in modelling policy options or assessing policy interventions

Outside DfT known uses include:

• passenger journeys figures are used as a measure of the overall health or state of the industry, for example by private research organisations, and are occasionally reported in the trade press
• local authorities may use these statistics to compare trends in their area with other local authorities, and nationally

Strengths of the data

Timely

This release is being published around 3 months after the end of the reference period.

Accuracy

Comparison with other sources suggests that, at the aggregate (national) level, the statistics are likely to provide a reasonably robust measure of levels and broad trends. However, any regional or local transport authority (LTA) figures should be interpreted alongside the data confidence index for that area.

There remains the possibility that the data captured is incorrect: data from operators that don’t use Ticketer could hold important information that is missing or there may be errors in the underlying data. Our quality assurance procedures attempt to mitigate these errors, although they cannot entirely remove this risk.

Limitations

Coverage

At the national level around 50% of local bus operators are included in the data, this accounts for approximately 52% of passengers journeys in England outside London when using the latest published Annual Bus Statistics data for the year ending March 2024. This comparison is based on operators that use Ticketer and have signed up to share the data with the Department. Coverage varies across local transport authorities, varying between 25% and 100%.

Data Confidence Index

The data confidence index provides a means of assessing the level of confidence that can be attached when interpreting trends, indicating how reliable and representative the figures are for a given area. Caution should still be used when interpreting all local transport authorities individual daily figures as external factors can cause variability. The confidence index is presented by a 5-point scale from very low to very high and is calculated from the following inputs:

Comparability of the Ticketer data to the Annual Bus PSV (Publis Service Vehicle) data. The percentage difference between the two figures has been calculated, for each Local Transport Authority (LTA) by financial year.

Ticketer sign up (%) is the level of sign up, within a local transport authority, using the annual bus PSV passenger journey data. Coverage is estimated for each local transport authority by dividing the number of journeys for Ticketer operators that have agreed to share their data by the total journeys for all Ticketer operators.

Ticketer presence (%) reflects the proportion that Ticketer operators make up within a particular LTA in relation to all operators.

Journeys not passengers

The data captures the number of passenger boardings or journeys. This is not the same as the number of passengers as one passenger may make multiple journeys.

It will include physical ticket sales, where money changes hands, as well as smart cards (commercial or concessionary), QR tickets, and where the driver counts passengers (such as school runs). If a passenger takes 2 buses it will be counted twice. A passenger journey is assigned to a local authority based on the location they boarded at.

Trips

The number of trips by the operator for a specific vehicle, direction and driver where at least one passenger has taken the service i.e. any service with no passengers will not be included as a trip. A service that has been cancelled would not be included. A long route and a short route will each count as 1, but a service that has 10 buses an hour will be counted 10 times. There can be split trips, where all the passengers stay on board but there is a new driver, which would count as 2.

A trip is assigned to a local authority based on the location that the first passenger boarded.

Journey details

While the data captures the number of passenger boardings, it does not capture detailed information about the journeys, such as the origin and destination, or purpose of the journey.

Passenger details

The data does not capture any details of the people using local bus services, such as their demographics, journey satisfaction, or the reasons behind their travel mode choice. However, data from other sources are used to provide supplementary data (see below).

Comparison date

Passenger journeys and trips are presented as a percentage of the equivalent week in the previous year, where 100% indicates the same level of activity. In most cases, this is the same week as the previous year. For example, the week ending Sunday 7 May 2023 is compared to the week ending Sunday 8 May 2022. This means that figures here can be affected by events on either the actual or comparison year. Using a week over individual days smooths out day-to-day variations in the data, making it easier to interpret trends.

This method is used because national coverage of the Ticketer data currently stands at around 50%, with significant local variation. Using absolute figures could therefore result in incomplete totals and risk misinterpretation.

External factors such as weather events, industrial action, and school holidays can influence both passenger journeys and bus trips. These may cause the comparison day to be unusually high or low, introducing visible fluctuations in the time series.

Ticketer operators

Data from Ticketer is collected via electronic ticket machines (ETMs) installed on buses operated by companies using Ticketer’s services. The group of operators using Ticketer can change over time, as new operators join and others leave. These changes affect the overall sample size and the number of ETMs contributing data.

As a result, fluctuations in the time series may not always reflect actual changes in passenger activity. Instead, they may be due to shifts in the operator base—such as the addition or removal of operators from the Ticketer network.

External factors

Passenger journeys and bus trips can be impacted by certain events, such as weather events and strikes. Local events and factors such as strike action and school holidays are likely to play a major part in local trends.

Data quality

These statistics are labelled ‘official statistics in development’, formerly called Experimental Statistics. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are temporarily undergoing a development and are being tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We expect this release series to remain labelled as official statistics in development for the foreseeable future.

We welcome feedback from users of these statistics. This can be provided by contacting us at bus.statistics@dft.gov.uk.

The key sources of errors arising in the production of statistics derived from Ticketer are likely to be the result of data missing from operators that do not use Ticketer. DfT attempts to mitigate the impact of such errors through data validation and suppression where figures are not reliable enough.

These validation checks are used to ensure that any large changes are identified and investigated, seeking explanations where differences are large or unexpected.

Other dimensions of quality

Respondent burden

As this data is collected directly from the electronic ticket machines there is no response burden on local bus operators.

Revisions

Planned improvements to the data aim to expand coverage and include additional data. As such, all figures should be considered provisional, and future revisions are likely as the data set evolves and coverage increases.

Further information and statistics

The daily local bus passenger and trip statistics publication uses data from Ticketer and there are further sources of useful information on buses and bus travel which produce alternative, additional or contextual data to provide a more complete picture of the bus sector, these include:

DfT and other sources

PSV Survey

The annual bus statistics release is based on a number of sources but primarily compiled from the annual Public Service Vehicle (PSV) survey of over 500 local bus operators. The survey provides information on passenger journeys, vehicle miles, revenue and costs, and vehicles and staff. Information on passenger journeys and bus mileage for London is provided by Transport for London (TfL). This data is published on an annual basis.

DfT quarterly fares survey

Covers changes in fares on local bus services in Great Britain, split by region. Data for the bus fares index is collected through a sample survey of around 100 operators and TfL. The index measures change in the gross yield. This is the change in passenger receipts (excluding concessionary fare reimbursement and subsidies from the government) which would result from a fares change, assuming no change in passenger numbers.

Operators supply information each quarter. Annual indices for groups of operators in different areas of Great Britain are obtained by averaging. The Department publishes the quarterly bus fares statistics, on a quarterly basis, in the form of a table. The Department also publishes monthly statistics on bus usage at a national level.

DfT bus punctuality statistics

Tables BUS09a and BUS09b are based on an annual survey of local authorities who monitor punctuality using manual surveys or data from electronic systems. They provide one measure of the performance of local bus services. There are different measures of punctuality for frequent and non-frequent services.

Concessionary Travel Survey (CT Survey)

The Concessionary Travel Survey is an annual data collection by DfT, to gather information from Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs). A statutory bus concession for older and disabled people has been in place since 2001. This statutory concession is referred to as the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) and is administered by the TCAs.

The survey is sent to the 85 TCAs outside London and to London Councils. The survey asks questions relating to expenditure, pass numbers, concessionary journeys, reimbursement and availability of youth and other discretionary concessions. The latest figures and further information are available.

Transport for London data

Transport for London (TfL) covers half of all local bus passenger journeys in England and are responsible for bus registrations in London. TfL publish many additional reports and information on buses in London as well as for other public transport. TfL supply figures for their services, some of which run outside London. These are adjusted by DfT to cover the Greater London region only, based on figures for patronage on cross-boundary services also supplied by TfL. Where it is clear that operators have not reported boardings for TfL services which they operate in areas outside London, these are added to the total journeys outside London.

TfL publish a large amount of information on bus journeys. As such they publish many additional reports and information on buses in London as well as for other public transport.

Many local authorities also publish information on buses in their area, but this varies by local authority. TfL use their own ticketing machines on all tendered services, and they collate all the data centrally, as well as carrying out additional surveys.

More detailed information relating to bus travel in London can be found on the TfL website.

National Travel Survey (NTS)

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a 7-day travel diary. The NTS provides data on travel by bus including information on the characteristics of bus users (for example by age, sex, car ownership) and take-up of concessionary travel.

The NTS covers all modes of personal travel and therefore allows bus travel to be compared with other modes and the mode share to be estimated. It also provides alternative measures of bus patronage.

Data from the NTS have been designated as accredited official statistics.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) datasets

Population data is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, the mid-year estimates from 2012 to 2022 were revised on 23 November to utilise information from the 2021 Census. Figures in these statistics have been recalculated to use these revised figures.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined survey of households in Great Britain. Its purpose is to provide information on key social and socioeconomic variables between the 10-yearly censuses. The figures shown for the age of bus drivers in this release are based on the APS whereas in previous releases figures were based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This change in the source is to enable the use of larger sample sizes in the analysis, in an effort to improve the reliability of the figures presented. Therefore, we have switched to using 3 year APS datasets as opposed to a single quarter that was previously used from the LFS. It should also be noted however that the trends are broadly in line with the previous analysis from the LFS.

The APS is used in the statistical release to provide information on bus and coach staff and drivers in addition to average weekly earnings and hours worked from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

Public transport support and concessionary travel reimbursement data

Financial data for local authorities are produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). However, only provisional data on revenue outturn has been published as of 27 November 2024. Due to this it is not currently possible to produce estimates for public transport support and concessionary travel reimbursement for the year ending March 2024. We plan to publish updated tables at a later date once final revenue outturn data has been published by MHCLG.

Other datasets

Bus user satisfaction data is available from Transport Focus, the independent transport user watchdog. The bus satisfaction survey has now stopped. In the interim until a new measure is introduced the transport focus bus user weekly survey has been used to provide figures on the levels of satisfaction of bus users with their most recent journey. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic a different survey method has been used to gather this information from the previous bus passenger survey, so direct comparisons with previous years’ data should not be made.

Information related to the impact of buses on the environment is published by DfT, based on Defra statistics. The information is included within the DfT Environment statistics.

Information on vehicles licensed as buses and coaches is available from DfT statistics on licensed vehicles. These provide an alternative measure of the vehicle stock, which is not directly comparable with data collected in the PSV survey (see notes to table BUS06a for details).

Bus Open data

The Bus Services Act (2017) provided powers for the Secretary of State (Transport) to legally require operators of local bus services across England to openly publish data about those services, including timetables; fares; and location data.

During 2020, DfT launched the new Bus Open Data Service where data consumers including researchers and application developers, will be able to find and use this data online.

The daily local bus passenger and trip statistics publication relates to England. Figures for Scotland and Wales are published by the Scottish Government and Welsh Government.

Other data sources available on buses

Below is a selection of some of the sources with links to their websites. We do not take responsibility for the quality or content of these sources, nor is this a fully exhaustive list.

Traffic Commissioners publish data on the number of bus routes registered and bus route variations in their annual reports. Caution should be used when using this data to make judgements on the overall bus market, as routes are changed for many operational reasons and can vary greatly in length and frequency.

Traffic Commissioners also publish changes to local routes and provide notices to changes at local bus route level. In addition, they provide search tools to find your local operator and find your local registered bus routes.

Traveline is a partnership of transport companies, local authorities and passenger groups which have come together to bring you routes and times for all travel in Great Britain by bus, rail, coach and ferry. As well as this Traveline offers several open data options.

The National Highways and Transport Network (NHT) is a service improvement organisation providing a range of benchmarking services for the Highways and Transport sector. They perform a large public satisfaction survey each year across multiple modes including public transport with data available at local authority level.

The TAS Partnership is a transport consultancy and provides data and research including undertaking a fares survey to identify bus ticket prices across the UK every 2 years.

Bus Times is an unofficial source for bus times and a useful website to find local bus route times and information. It utilises other open data sources and contains contact details for most bus operators.

The department also collects a range of statistics related to Concessionary Travel from Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs). These cover pass holding and use, expenditure and reimbursement and availability of youth and other discretionary schemes. They are published as part of the ‘buses’ series on the department’s website.

Terminology

Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operator: For the purposes of these statistics, these are licensed operators of Public Service Vehicles in Tax Classes 34 and 38 using buses, minibuses or coaches for public service (which include local bus services, school services, long-distance coaching, tours, excursions and private hire). Taxi services and any work not intended for carrying passengers are excluded.

Local bus service: Local services are scheduled stopping services registered with the Traffic Commissioner. School bus services should be included if the service is registered as a local service available to the general public and it is eligible for Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG).

In Greater London, local services include tendered services for Transport for London or those run with a London Service Permit. Outside London, local services include commercial, tendered and de-minimis local bus services including those supported by Rural Bus Subsidy Grant or Challenge funding.

Non-local services: These include (the non-registered parts of) scheduled coach services, school contracts where the service cannot be used by fare-paying members of the public at bus stops, private hire where the vehicle is hired in advance and pre-booked tours. Only work done in Great Britain is included.

Passenger journeys: A count of the total number of boardings of each vehicle, so a trip which requires a change from one bus to another would be counted as two journeys in these figures.

It will include physical ticket sales, where money changes hands, as well as smart cards (commercial or concessionary), QR tickets, and where the driver counts passengers (such as school runs). If a passenger takes 2 buses it will be counted twice. A passenger journey is assigned to a local authority based on the location they boarded at.

Concessionary passengers: A concessionary passenger is someone who receives a concession either as part of the statutory Scheme (i.e. the English Concessionary Travel Scheme in England) or as a discretionary concession. Concessionary travel schemes are administered by Travel Concession Authorities. Non-concessionary relates to fare paying passengers.

Bus Trips (local bus services): The number of trips by the operator for a specific vehicle, direction and driver where at least one passenger has taken the service i.e. any service with no passengers will not be included as a trip. A service that has been cancelled would not be included. A long route and a short route will each count as 1, but a service that has 10 buses an hour will be counted 10 times. There can be split trips, where all the passengers stay on board but there is a new driver, which would count as 2.

A trip is assigned to a local authority based on where the first passenger boarded.

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Contact details

Bus statistics

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